Characterization of an Epoxy Network with Gold Nanoparticles Using Dielectric Analysis

What is it about?

Epoxy composite materials have been processed with various percentage additions of gold nanoparticles. Different percentages of filler were designed to investigate their influence on the dielectric properties of epoxy polymers. A small loss of cross-linking of the material as increasing nanoparticle concentration in the sample has been observed. Doubling the concentration of nanoparticle, we got three times the load storage capacity of the nanocomposite. The curves of capacitance versus temperature show three peaks: The first one is associated to the orientation of the functional groups of the material side chains, and it is known as α-transition The second peak is associated to the orientation of dipoles upon the nanoparticle surface. The third peak is associated to the material′s thermodegradation. A morphological study using a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) shows that most of the nanoparticle has an average diameter of about 4 nm.

Featured Image